Randall’s prayer reminded me that next Sunday is Thanksgiving, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So next Sunday, we are going to take up a special offering for our Ethiopian partnership. And the goal is to collect at least $200 for each church in the Heartland Conference.
So if you’ll just come prepared with a check, write it to One Hope, and in the memo just put Ethiopian partnership, and we will send that off to the Global Methodist Church as they are starting new churches all the time in Africa. It’s so awesome to hear about what’s going on there and how churches are changing and growing and new things are happening. We are in the middle of a series.
When I say middle, we’re halfway finished, called the series is disciple. And I just left it as disciple because I think we’re going to do several different series. I’ll spread them out at different times where we talk about different disciples, since we are called to be disciples.
Is anybody called to be a disciple of Jesus? Well, that’s what we’re here for. So if you’re not, then we’ll pray. We’re called to be a disciple of Jesus, so we’re going to look at different disciples in the Bible, some who were part of the 12 who walked with Jesus during his three years in ministry, who were there when the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, and others who met Jesus later through the disciples and as the church was growing.
The last two weeks, we talked about Philip the Apostle. Some of these disciples, we don’t think of as the main ones. Like when I think of one of the 12, what are some names that come to your mind? Luke is not one of the 12.
Matthew, Mark was not one of the 12. Well, let’s do a little lesson before we start. The inner three were Peter, James, and John.
Those are the main ones we think about. Those are the ones all the Gospels tell us the most about. But in the book of John, we learn a little bit more about Philip and how Philip learned to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Now, we’re going to look at Philip in the book of Acts. And this is slightly confusing because it’s a different Philip. You’re reading the Bible sometimes, and you go, come on, use some last names here.
And usually, they didn’t have last names. They would just say son of Alphaeus, or whatever their father’s name was. Philip the Evangelist, if you look in the book of Acts, Philip the Evangelist was in, we see, Acts 6, where there were widows who were called Hellenists.
Hellenists are Greek-speaking Jews, as in they didn’t grow up in Jerusalem. They grew up in other places where there was a diaspora where, believe it or not, throughout the whole history of Israel in the Jewish life, there were times where people would come in, and then the Jews would get spread out into the world. But they would come back to Jerusalem for celebrations like Passover, when the Holy Spirit would come down for the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, different things they would celebrate, and come back.
And so there were a bunch there when the church really started growing after Pentecost came. And these women who were not from Jerusalem were complaining because they were getting neglected for food. They weren’t getting fed, and probably not fed with actual physical nourishment, but spiritual nourishment where they’re left out.
I mean, it’s a tough situation when you speak a different language. Maybe they knew some Hebrew, but probably not quite the dialect they spoke here. So the Bible tells us that seven were chosen to serve.
And what we learn about them is that they were full of what? Not the Dickens, they were full of what? The Holy Spirit. They were full of the Holy Spirit, and they were chosen to serve. And they started off here with this was their ministry, this was their purpose.
And then the Holy Spirit gifted them from there. And the main one, again, that we know about is Stephen, because Stephen gave that great speech. And it was his last speech because he was stoned.
But one of the seven was Philip. And Philip became an amazing evangelist. So scholars call Philip in the Gospels, Philip the apostle.
And this Philip, they call Philip the evangelist because he evangelized. And we’re going to see a little bit about that in Acts 8. Will you stand as you are able? We’re going to look at four through 12. And this is part one of Philip the evangelist.
Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
For unclean spirits crying out in a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.
They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the power of God that is called great. And they paid attention to him because of the long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
The word of God inspired by God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
You may be seated. One thing you need to do if you’re bored in your life is to get yourself a teenager in your house. Teenagers like to say this.
Why? Will you do this? Why? And oh, now I feel like I’m surrounded by them. But if you really want to understand instead of just a teenager, you should get yourself a Chris. It didn’t just start in the teenage years.
It’s something I’ve experienced my whole life. One of the toughest times was when Colin was really young, and we went to a Royals baseball game. We lived in Salina.
Yeah, I think we were in Salina at that time. And Christopher was pretty young then, too, because Colin was young. And we were at the Royals game, and it became obvious about halfway through the game that Colin was not going to make it any longer.
And I was pretty disappointed. We came all the way to Kansas City for a Royals game, and we finally, I was like, Holly’s going, you know this isn’t going to last much longer. And I’m going, no, we’re holding out.
And so finally we left, and I was so graceful. No, I was so mad that we got in the car, and I’m complaining the whole way. And by the time we got in the car and we get on the highway and we’re going back to the hotel, everyone is quiet because they know if they open their mouth, I’m going to interject and shut them up, just in case they didn’t realize how mad I was.
And the car was quiet, and I was fuming, and everybody was scared to talk. And all of a sudden, this voice from the back of Christopher says, Dad, why did you want to become a preacher? And I was like, I do not want to answer that question right now. What we see from Philip here, I love how Luke puts this, is that Philip came into what might be considered a hostile environment to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Philip said and came in, and Luke says that he preached the gospel, and they believed when he preached the gospel and when the people saw the signs. I mean, he was in Samaria. Samaria was a break off of Judaism where it had some of the Hebrew practices, but also they added in other stuff.
It was kind of polytheistic in some ways. And so there were a lot of demons and horrible things that were happening. And instead of just doing magic tricks, like Simon the magician did, he came in, and when he would speak, demons would scream and leave the people because he had the power of Jesus within him.
So it wasn’t just what he said, it was what he did that helped the people believe. Disciples of Jesus Christ have to remember that we not only talk the talk, we, you didn’t seem excited about that second part, we walk the walk. We do it, we back it up, we show Christ within us, and that makes it something different.
It’s often said that people are not going to believe you until they know you care. So going up to someone cold and telling them they need Jesus does not really show them you need that you have Jesus within you as much as if they see your actions, and they see how you love them, and they see how you care. Unlike when some dads leave a Royals ball game and they’re mad at everybody in their family.
And it doesn’t show a pastoral attitude. Warren Christian apologetics had some incredible things to say about how we practice our faith. D’Ecstasio said, practical atheism is found in the lives of many people who believe in God, but who live as if he does not exist.
I’ll let that sink in for a minute. They profess to believe in God, but live as if he does not exist, as in one of the complaints people sometimes have is Christians are hypocritical. You tell people you love them.
You tell your kids you love them every night, but then you get mad over baseball. What is hypocritical in Christians is what people just latch on to. And sometimes in many churches, there are people who believe their ministry is to criticize others and rip others apart, especially if it comes to the kitchen.
Do not mess with the kitchen in a church. Whatever you do. Or the carpet in the sanctuary.
You talk about a church split. Those things can happen. Ruby Shelley, on that same Warren Christian apologetics, defined practical atheism as holding an intellectual commitment to belief in God, but thinking, feeling, and behaving as if there were no God.
Where in your lives do people see Jesus in you? And where would they have no idea by the way you act and treat others that Jesus was in your life, that Jesus was a part of your life? The Warren Christian apologetics also then quoted from Titus 1, verse 16, where it is talking about those who, what Paul says, are of the circumcision party. Those who keep all these practices and said, in order to be faithful, you have to do this and this and this, instead of totally relying on Jesus above anything else. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.
They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Now as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we have to decide in every situation that we’re not just going to talk about Jesus, which is important to talk about Jesus. We did the prayer of St. Francis, and he’s often attributed the quote.
Although every time you want to use someone for a quote, I dug a little deeper, and there’s no proof that he actually said this. But you may know this through him. He says, everywhere I go, I preach the gospel.
And if necessary, I use words. And then the people who know about St. Francis really well is he would tell everybody anywhere on any path running into him, in the marketplace, wherever it was, he would tell them about Jesus. So he was like works and deeds, not just deeds.
But it’s important for those to align, that what we say line up with what we do. And even further back, what we think lines up with what we say and what we do. That we follow Jesus in thought, word, and deed as followers of Jesus Christ.
Now, this surely did not happen in Johnson County. So we’ll say it was across the state line. But there was a driver who was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard.
Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing stopping at the crosswalk, even though if he gunned it, he could have crossed that intersection and beat the red light by accelerating through. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection.
She dropped her phone and her makeup. He made it so inconvenient for her. As she was still mid-rant, there was a tapping on her window.
And there was a stern-looking police officer asking her to roll down her window. He ordered her to exit the car with her hands up. I mean, he cut her off in the midst of her rant.
He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed on a holding cell. After a couple hours, the policeman came back. And he let her out.
And he apologized. And he was so sorry. I can’t believe I made this mistake.
I was pulling up behind your car where you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, cussing a blue streak at him. And I noticed the What Would Jesus Do bumper sticker on your car, the Choose Life license plate holder, and the Follow Me to Sunday School bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I thought you had stolen the car.
A.W. Tozer said it like this. To many Christians, Christ is little more than an idea or a best of an ideal. He is not a fact.
Millions of professed believers talk as if he were real and act as if he were not. Our actual position is always to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk. Now, Philip, when he spoke in Samarica, in Samaria, Samarica, that’s a Freudian slip if there ever was one.
When he spoke in Samaria, the Samaritans had evil spirits that were driven out. He did signs and miracles and wonders. And you’re thinking, how am I just going to start with signs and miracles and wonders? Sometimes we emphasize in the Church the gifts of the Spirit, but we de-emphasize the fruit of the Spirit.
And the fruit of the Spirit are an incredible witness to Jesus Christ, just as much as are the gifts of the Spirit. In the book of Galatians, chapter 6, he says, Paul says, there are many desires of the Spirit that are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Things like anger, things like sadness, things like depression, those things can keep you from doing things you want to do for Jesus.
But if you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not on the law. The works of the flesh are evident. These are the kind of things that Christians do all the time, but don’t witness to Jesus.
Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, pastor, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit, your witness to Jesus Christ, your actions that show that Christ is in you, so people believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, not by the words, but by what you think, what you say, and what you do.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Do you like how I hung on patience there? That’s the fruit that some of us are yet to discover.
Philip was a great example of not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. Philip did what he said and followed it up by letting Christ work through him. Let Christ work through you with the gift of the Spirit, but also with the fruit of the Spirit.
Let your witness be evidence that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is real, and that you are the fruit of the Spirit. Our disciple of Jesus Christ, when you go out from here, show the world love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. Show them that you have that fruit of Jesus within them.
Show them that you care so that they can receive the love of Jesus for themselves in everything in their lives. Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you for the witness of Philip.
Thank you for the witness of all the disciples here. Help us to share you in thought, word, and deed. Help us to think about you, to tell others about you, and to let you work through us.
Through the gifts of the Spirit that you give us, through the fruit of the Spirit, we pray that we would be your witnesses, that we would follow you in everything we say and do, and that we would always trust in you, even if it’s stressful, even if it doesn’t go like we planned, even if it’s hurtful, even if someone is harsh or rude or angry or whatever they are to us. Help let Christ work through us. In Jesus’ name, amen.